


Distance Erased

by whereismygarden



Series: Reflections universe [6]
Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 03:11:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3634440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whereismygarden/pseuds/whereismygarden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Small comforts in stressful situations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distance Erased

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Reflections](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3332774) by [Potboy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Potboy/pseuds/Potboy). 
  * Inspired by [Reflections](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3332774) by [Potboy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Potboy/pseuds/Potboy). 



> Set circa their "Deliverance" 2x11.

                Nicola’s eyes were stinging with exhaustion as she thumbed through the glowing blue script of yet another file on Ancient techniques on reprogramming enemy technology. The problem was that for all that Destiny could communicate with them and was capable of intergalactic travel, she was too old. There was more information on aggressive AIs on Atlantis, and the data that Destiny had accumulated during the battle three weeks ago was only as good as her sensors. The Ancients had never been here, and no one knew anything about the society that had left behind these mindless drones.

                They were the only humans of any kind, any evolution, to step this far outside of their sphere of birth. It was usually an exciting thought, comforting even, that they were seeing stars and nebulae and galaxies that were tiny pixel-sized pricks of light in telescope deep fields. In the face of attack, though, it was something more like drowning.

                She marked the file for later and decided to wander over to the observation deck. Evelyn might be there, and if she wasn’t, it would be nice to look out at the universe, especially if they were running the risk of being wiped right out of it.

                Evelyn was on the observation deck, along with Chu, who was reading with her back to the railings. Evelyn was sitting on one of the benches, watching Bryce, who was writhing around at her feet. Nicola approached to see that he was wriggling himself forward by means of folding his legs under his body and pushing off like an inchworm. She smiled despite herself. The lad looked as sticky as ever, but he was babbling, a stream of something like “peh peh peh” directed at his mother.

                Evelyn smiled at her, and leaned forward to scoop Bryce up. He kicked his legs for a second, but settled happily into her lap.

                “Say hello to Nicola,” she encouraged. The boy burbled out another similar stream of noise.

                “Hey there, weeun,” Nicola said uncertainly. She still hadn’t mastered the knack of talking to the child, but he reached his hands out to her as she sat down next to Evelyn. She handed him over, and then grubby little hands were reaching up for her hair and earrings. As long as he got a sufficiently thick handful of her hair, a few light tugs didn’t hurt, and keeping him away from her earrings was hardly difficult.

                “Mah,” Bryce announced, face morphing into a frown at her denial of his desire to rip her earrings out of her lobes. He pulled a bit too hard on her hair.

                “Back to mama with you then,” Nicola said, passing him back. Evelyn held him up, letting him rest his socked feet on her thighs, pushing against them. Learning to stand, perhaps. She had a thought.

                “Brody’s always working on her paper project, you know, and she has some thick pieces that are too uneven and stiff to be really useful.” Evelyn turned to look at her, waiting for her to continue. “She gives them to Wray, to paint on.”

                “I don’t know how I should feel about your sudden interest in the arts,” Evelyn said dryly, while Nicola waited for her to catch on. She didn’t say anything further, furrowing her brow slightly and still waiting. Well, she’d gotten rather good at explaining things to Evelyn, and good at enjoying it too.

                “Might be good for a picture book,” she said casually, and Evelyn’s face went still and pensive, and quietly hopeful. “I assume you want your son to be able to read.”

                “I’ll ask Elly to do a kid’s story, she’d love that,” she said after a moment. She gave Bryce a broad smile, touching her nose to his. “Hey, kiddo?” He smiled back, oblivious to his dubious future educational prospects. Evelyn turned to look at her. “That was a nice idea.” Her dark eyes were soft in the quiet violet background light of FTL. Nicola shrugged, and ducked her head when Evelyn appeared to be contemplating giving her a kiss. Chu was still sitting nearby.

                “I’ll see you later,” she said, standing up. She had best go down to the mess and see what unbearable attempt at dinner Becker was cooking up, before she was too late. She needed to look for planets that were suitable for foraging: there were none in their next few days, but maybe after that. The good thing, or neutral thing, about Destiny being a million years old, was that in geological time, it wasn’t very old at all, and the planetary information in the database was functionally current.

                She spent most of her unappetizing dinner thinking about the unnatural persistence of stargates, and Destiny, and Atlantis, and everything else the Ancients had made. It would be nice if they could find a naquadah-rich planet, and bolster up some of the systems that required it.

                The database didn’t contain anything too promising too soon, and it was actually harder to look through now that they had control of Destiny’s course. They would have to start looking farther ahead and planning for speed, if this drone problem was going to follow them. Volker always acted like she wanted to screen planets, but really she wanted to look at the system data of all the stars, and Park was unreliable at identifying the minerals they could use unless Brody was there to hold his hand through it. She would have to check up on everything they did, and continue her work on understanding Destiny. Elly was helpful with that, but the young woman was easily distractible by literally anything.

                She wandered into Evelyn’s quarters much later to find her at the desk, typing away at a laptop. The Ancients had had just enough sense to construct a few rooms with alcoves large enough to be suitable babies’ rooms, and Brody had had fun building a crib. The “door”, which was really just bulkhead paneling wrapped in canvas, was closed. Bryce must be asleep. Evelyn had refused to use the door with the typical Destiny locking mechanism, and given the way the doors could be sealed and sometimes malfunctioned, that was probably a good idea. She and Volker had spent a good hour permanently disabling the control mechanism and then Brody had soldered it open and hung the new one.

                “Hey,” she said quietly. Evelyn made a few motions that indicated she was saving her work, then stood up, coming out from behind the desk.

                “Hey,” she replied, and stepped close, wrapping her arms around Nicola’s neck. “A book was a thoughtful idea,” she said, and kissed her gently, running her fingers through Nicola’s hair. Nicola allowed this to continue for a few moments, then deepened the kiss, sliding her tongue past Evelyn’s lips and making it a little dirty. She could prod at Evelyn’s surprise at her being thoughtful, but she had other priorities: Evelyn’s hands were warm and strong on her back, and she was letting Nicola tease at the inside of her lower lip with her tongue.

                “Hmm,” Evelyn said, pulling away. She had the look in her eyes that meant that she would be happy to indulge Nicola, so she responded by putting her arms around Evelyn’s waist and kissing softly along her neck. Evelyn knew her well enough at this point to grab her by the shoulders and kiss her till she was gasping for breath and hanging onto Evelyn’s shoulders, mind spinning.

                “Let me take my shoes off at least,” she protested, and pulled away to sit down at the edge of the bed. Evelyn let her do so, but sat down behind her, pulled off her outer shirt, and ran her hands up and down her sides while she undid her bootlaces and shed her socks, making her skin prickle and heat up, making her want to arch back into her lover. Evelyn put her chin on Nicola’s shoulder.

                “You could consider showering before you come over, your feet smell terrible,” she said, with a tease in her voice. Nicola barely had time to be offended, because she hardly smelled the worst on Destiny, but then Evelyn had wrapped an arm around her, and was dragging her back onto the bed, distracting her. Then she was taking her out of the rest of her clothes and kissing every spot on her neck and chest and back and arms that made her whine and shudder up against Evelyn’s too-clothed torso.

                She got the other woman down to her underwear, running her hands up her rough, iron-hard legs and the softer skin of her stomach and arms before Evelyn shifted so that she was on top of her, shoving her thighs apart with her knee and putting one hand in her hair and the other between her legs. Then Nicola was moaning into her mouth and grinding up against her deft fingers and digging her fingers into the mattress and her own hair, until she was biting the back of her hand and shaking through a wrenching orgasm.

                Later, her arm curved around Evelyn’s waist and her face pressed into the back of her neck, she put her hand over Evelyn’s and felt her shift slightly: she was half asleep, it seemed. Nicola enjoyed the feeling of Evelyn’s fingers against hers and felt a deep sense of peace come over her in a wave. Despite the perilous situation Destiny was in, Evelyn made her feel centered and safe. She hadn’t known this kind of comfort, this reaching out to and banishing of a deep aching loneliness, in so long.

                A thrill of fear and joy ran through her and she felt tears gather in the corners of her closed eyes. This feeling had surprised her decades ago, when she had been lying in the summer grass on a quad, talking about algebra to Gilroy as he listened quietly. She had never even suspected the depth of love that was in her, and then it had been flooded with grief. She pressed her face a bit harder into Evelyn’s neck and bit back a sob, feeling it run through her body instead of out of her mouth.

                “Nicola,” Evelyn said, voice sleepy but concerned. She made to turn, and Nicola moved her hand to her shoulder, stroking and pushing down slightly, imploring her not to move, to turn and see her. If she spoke, her voice would shake.

                She had forgotten, somehow, the deep pulse of wonder that came with this. Evelyn, with her ruthless pragmatism and unfeigned kindness, the latter of which Nicola had had to learn to appreciate. The unconscious joy she had in Bryce, the hints of wonder in her at the universe around them, her gentle relentlessness in bed, her willingness to extend her mother’s role out from her own son.

                “What’s wrong?” Evelyn asked, stroking over her hand. She settled her breathing somewhat, but she still felt shaky.

                “I think I might be in love with you,” she whispered, and her words did shake. Evelyn went still, then rolled over to face her, cupping her face in her hand. She searched Nicola’s face for a long moment, eyes too dark to study in the dimness of the room, and then offered her a small, growing smile.

                “Don’t cry,” she said, but there was a rasp in her voice too, disguised by its natural depth. That only made Nicola actually cry, pressing her eyes shut, and Evelyn pulled her in tight, wrapping her arms around her back while she fought back the conflicting joy and terror in her heart. “I…” Evelyn’s uncertainty, which she usually enjoyed laughing at, wrenched at her a little. It wasn’t like she was worried about Evelyn abandoning her, at least not on purpose.

                “You don’t have to reciprocate right this instant,” she said. Evelyn ran a hand through her hair, smoothing it back and tucking it behind her ear, and kissed her cheek.

                “Go to sleep,” she said, and her fingers lingered in Nicola’s hair. Several minutes of quiet passed, and then Evelyn spoke again, voice soft. “You make me very happy, too.” Nicola drew in a deep breath, tucked herself back into Evelyn’s side, and let herself try to relax in the feeling of love filling her up like sunlit water.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Eric's Song," by Vienna Teng, because I am still enjoying this convention. Also, go listen to the song, because it's very fitting for them.
> 
> It's my thought that when they're cuddling in bed, Nicola is the "outside spoon" if they're not face to face. 
> 
> Also, Microsoft Word has brought it to my attention that the endearment "weeun" for a little kid is not a real word, which makes me wonder about its etymology.


End file.
